Drowned Father and Son Funeral Held

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, January 10, 2002

Hundreds of mourners packed a small church in northwest England on Friday for the funeral of a father and son who drowned on a fishing trip after being trapped by a swift incoming tide.

Stewart Rushton, 51, and his 9-year-old son, Adam, had gone fishing Saturday on the sands at Morecambe Bay, an area of channels and treacherous tides on England's northwestern coast near their home in Dalton-in-Furness, about 45 miles north of Liverpool.

But a heavy fog rolled in, obscuring the shore, and the pair became trapped on a sandbar.

Rushton hoisted his son onto his shoulders as water rose to his neck. He continued to make a series of increasingly frantic cellphone calls to the coast guard and shouted out to rescuers who were just a few hundred yards away.

Tragically, they were unable to save the pair, as visibility was so poor and the waters were too dangerous.

Rushton's widow, Joy, 40, led about 700 mourners at the church near the family's home. After the service, the Rev. Alan Mitchell said it had been a "difficult" occasion marked by a "mix of sadness and loss."

In his service, Mitchell spoke of the bond Rushton had had with his "fun-loving" son.

"They were best mates, best friends. They always did all sorts of things together _ fishing, walking, all sorts of things," he said.